Thank you for all the wonderful reviews! They were all marvellous!

One thing I must add: this fic is going to be fast paced for quite sometime. I'm skipping the earlier years, but still writing a few things about them as the story progresses. Regulus will not be the only child Harry and Ginny have, and I am planning to show them learning how to cope with their other children later. It has not been mentioned yet, but Mrs Weasley has been giving Ginny some help. This will come up in later chapters.

Anyway, here is the next chapter!

THREE: First words

Parenthood, as Harry discovered was incredibly hard, even though he had experience with Danielle, the young girl he had adopted with his then girl-friend Charlotte, he still found handling his son tedious. Regulus was not difficult to look after, mainly because he slept most of the time, leaving his parents to themselves. However as the months began to whisk past and he started to brighten up and take notice of things around him, Harry found out that his son was determined to not sleep at all, which resulted in tears as his parents had to practically force him to sleep.

The simple solution would've been a sleep induced spell, however Harry and Ginny both disagreed with this. Performing magic on a baby was wrong, especially if it was for your own ends. Harry's reasoning was, why should Wizard's get that option, when Muggles don't.

So, they were adamant to bring their child up properly.

Fortunately for them they had the added help of James, Sirius, Remus, Molly and Arthur Weasley, as well Hermione and Ron Weasley (unless they were busy with their own child).

Every so often Harry and Ginny went out for a night for a meal, or wandering round the streets. They usually left James in charge, who was readily available, even during term time at Hogwarts. However, when they returned, Sirius and Remus had turned up at some point during the hours they were out, and they usually found the three of them playing with Regulus. By the time they got home, Regulus was supposed to be sleeping.

While Ginny lectured the three of them about handing her child, Harry would take Regulus to bed and sing him a song, that ended taking the boy to dream land and falling fast asleep.

The only problem with having an open house to Apparation, it meant that Sirius could come over at any time. It was during this period of Regulus' young life that Harry truly realised how obsessive Sirius was about his Godson. Harry had named Sirius Godfather to his son (though he had been planning to ask Draco instead). Unfortunately, Draco Malfoy had not been seen in the Wizarding World since a month before Regulus' birth. The last he had heard from him was that Draco had said that he was going on a little mission for his department in the Ministry and he would be out of contact for a while. So for now, Sirius had taken the role of Godfather, and he was being rather obsessive.

Thankfully, James said he would calm down eventually as he had done the same thing when Harry had been born. In and out all the time.

As time went on, Regulus became more aware and started noticing things. He had such an inquisitive nature, that it was amazing he hadn't learnt to walk yet, but he was too young to walk and talk yet.

The pressure of being young parents pushed Harry and Ginny to their limits. Harry had successfully applied as an Auror. He had limited power due to the final battle with Voldemort had robbed him of some, but he still had a high amount of magic. He was not as powerful, which resulted him in only going on team missions. Plus he was a father now and the hero of the Wizarding World, so he was given special circumstances, which Harry didn't mind, as long as he was bringing in money to his family.

One of the things that surprised the Wizarding World the most, was that Harry and Ginny had settled into a Muggle Neighbourhood, on the outskirts of Bromley. They had decided they wanted their children brought up in a joint society, so they quickly befriended the families. They ordered anyone apparating over to appear upstairs and come down, and then saying they had come through the front door. This gave Harry and Ginny the liable excuses for their many visitors.

James had watched as Ginny and Harry got weary and decided to buy them spa tickets. It was a weeks holiday for relaxation and so the parents gave Regulus to Arthur and Molly Weasley to attend to, who were only too happy to do this. The cliché of this was that the Weasley's forbid Sirius and Remus from going over, but not James. They couldn't cope with Sirius' constant Apparation to their home and had ordered him not to come anymore.

They returned at the end of February, and carried on with their simple life.

On the 24th April, the eight month of Regulus' life, he learnt to crawl, and he spent most of his waking hours wandering round the house. By June he was walking and just learning to say words. He had not yet fully said a proper word, but it would soon occur, that much Harry and Ginny knew.

September 3rd 2005

James walked into the room, levitating a birthday cake in front of him. This was Regulus' 1st birthday party. He and Sirius had not been available for a few weeks, due to planning work for the new school year, so on Regulus' first birthday on the 17th August, they had left Harry and Ginny to celebrate it on their own.

The first Friday night of the school term, the two Professors had found time to come over and hold a small birthday party. Remus also came, though he had a lot of work for his own job in the Ministry.

"Happy Birthday, Reg!" Sirius said, as James placed the cake on the table. Using a cutting spell he sliced the cake into equal pieces. He passed individual pieces to each person and sat down to quickly eat his piece before mashing the cake up so that Regulus was able to eat it.

"There you go, Reg, have some of your cake."

"CAKE!"

Silence fell round the table.

"What was that?" Harry asked numbly, staring at his son.

"CAKE!" the little boy repeated.

Ginny clasped her hands to her mouth, her eyes shining. "He said 'cake'."

"His first word." James murmured. He smiled, and ruffled a hand at the baby's head. Regulus' thick black hair stood up on end.

"CAKE!" he repeated again.

Harry hurried round the table and picked up his son. "Well done you. You're a smart little lad, aren't you?"

"CAKE!" was the reply.

Ginny giggled. "I think he wants cake. James give him some."

Harry placed Regulus back in his seat and allowed James to feed him.

He had never thought that his son's first word would be 'cake'.

I wonder if that means he will soon start calling me daddy? he wondered.

TBC

What did you think? Please review! I hope you liked it!

Next chapter: The Trouble with Two-Year Olds

I will post again sometime next week.

MissBlackPotter